Romania

Elbit to Supply Watchkeeper X Tactical UAS to Romania

Posted on by Techtime

Elbit Systems was awarded a framework contract with a maximum value of approximately $410 million to supply up to 7 Watchkeeper X tactical unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) to the Romanian Army, with a validity of five years. No specific purchase order was awarded yet. The Watchkeeper X UAS is the UK export variant of the British army made by U-TacS, Elbit’s UK subsidiary in cooperation with Thales, and is a derivative of the Hermes UAS family. Watchkeeper’s compatibility with  NATO standards enables essential interoperability with NATO and other allied forces.

Bezalel (Butzi) Machlis, President and CEO of Elbit Systems, said that as part of the contract execution, Elbit plans to establish infrastructure and industrial cooperation with U-TacS, Aerostar and Elbit Systems’ subsidiaries in Romania to produce the UAS in Romania. Watchkeeper is based on Elbit’s Hermes 450 and is considered one of the biggest UAS European programs. Since the first flight in 2010, Watchkeeper has accumulated over 3,000 flying hours, including successful service in Afghanistan, where it played a crucial protective role for British troops.

Waterfall Security deployed cyber defense solution at a Romanian power plant

Posted on by Techtime

[Waterfall new Singapore office] 

The industrial cyber company Waterfall Security installed its unidirectional cyber security system in a Romanian power plant. The installation process was accompanied by a local integrator, HTSS Company, specializing in business and industrial software solutions, with more than 1,000 customers at 11 countries. Lately, Waterfall Security launched new branches in Singapore and United Arab Emirates.

Waterfall’s CEO and founder, Lior Frenkel, says to Techtime that its company is highly active at the power plants sector. “The whole sector, at the global level, is gearing up on the subject of defending production systems from cyber attacks. This is mainly due to the latest increased threat of ransomware attacks. 

Founded at 2008, Waterfall has developed a unidirectional cyber solution, consists of both hardware and software, which offers bulletproof protection for operational networks (OT) in industrial facilities against remote cyber attacks. The hardware component is installed between the operational network (OT) and the external network (IT). A single one direction optical fiber connects the two, thus creates a Unidirectional Security Gateway allowing data to move only outward but not into the industrial network itself.

This hardware creates a physical barrier that isolates the network. When a user uses the analytics systems, he does so in a replicated cloud. Waterfall employs approximately 100 employees in Israel and the US. According to the company it has a few thousands of customers, mainly from the Energy and Electricity, Gas and Oil, Water and Chemicals sectors.